


and our paths diverge

by Darth Occlus (NotSummer)



Series: deliverance [11]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Betrayal, Established Relationship, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Major Character Injury, Missions Gone Wrong, Pregnancy, Sabotage, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 01:19:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15232209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotSummer/pseuds/Darth%20Occlus
Summary: She was fine on the Occlus: she could manage missions, intel, her networks and contacts. She could be helpful. Maybe she didn't even need to leave.After all, she was perfectly safe here.





	and our paths diverge

**Author's Note:**

> heads up, Miyala loves her daughter, but she does struggle with some Complex(TM) feelings about her pregnancy so small warning for that.

Miyala propped her chin in her flesh hand as she used her cybernetic to tap on a few information feeds from Nar Shaddaa. Novari had given her some information that gave Miyala an idea for an Op to run by Zey, and Miyala was following up with Hack. She snorted as she read the message: he wanted to play Sabacc again. She countered with credits, knowing full well the damned man would clean her pockets out if she played Sabacc with him.

She turned her attention to the other holos around her, and pushed a few datapads distractedly, keeping her eyes on the cameras tracking her boyfriend and the Force sensing any danger around him. He was fine, and nearly finished setting the explosives around the magnaguard facility.

They’d been lucky to find this factory: Miyala was envious of Palpatine’s connections. She’d gotten no whiff of its existence from her own networks. And the CIS clearly had no idea they were there: Jesse’s sneaking around was completely unnoticed.

Still. She should have been there with him. She glared down at her stomach, swollen with the later stages of her pregnancy, unable to hide the hint of resentment. Miyala was glad to have a daughter, glad to have this chance, but… she wanted to be out there. She didn’t like being sidelined. And she didn’t know what to do with kids. Hadn’t thought about them. After all, she was a Jedi. Relationships and families should have been off the table.

She shook her head, driving the thoughts away and rubbing her hand over her stomach in apology. She picked up a datapad with Ahla Haxi scrawled over the top, checking bounty listings before tossing it back down, watching the camera feeds again. She looked through his HUD and watched him exit the factory from his own POV.

Mission complete then. She let out a breath but it didn’t release any tension, and she frowned. The Force should have relaxed. She swivelled on her stool, the creaking of the joints suddenly abnormally loud.

Concrete meowed and Miyala jumped before glaring at her cat and then sighing. Fuck. She watched the entrances to the mess, her eyes narrowing, and then she shook herself. She was fine.

Something thudded, and she turned back around again. There was nothing there, and yet… She put her hand on the counter, feeling for the knife underneath. Nothing happened, and she grunted and turned back to her work.

The Force flared, and she shoved herself backwards, the stool toppling with her with a loud crash. Two magnaguards decloaked, and she shoved herself backwards as their staffs impacted the floor where she’d been sitting. They dented the metal floors, and the droids moved towards her. She let out a clumsy burst of telekinetic power, shoving them back and getting her some breathing room.

She wasn’t capable of telekinesis beyond uncoordinated shoves, and she swallowed, hard, as the magnaguards spun their staffs and advanced. She threw up a barrier around herself, a glowing golden dome, and the staffs hit, but only bounced off. She threw another barrier around Concrete as her cat yowled, and she looked around wildly, hoping a solution would come to her.

The Jedi-killing droids prowled around her barrier, likely waiting for her to give up, and Miyala glanced at the doorway leading to her room. If she could get within sight of her lightpikes, she could maybe turn this into her favor.

She gripped the knife in her flesh hand harder, and then threw it. It was a perfect throw, and it embedded itself into the center of one of the droids chest. It was a distraction, and she dropped her barrier to dive for the entrance to her room, clumsily turning to protect her stomach.

Her metal hand clanged as it caught one of the staffs, and she shoved the uninjured droid back before throwing up another barrier. The droids slammed their staffs into the barrier, again and again, trying to drain her power reserves, and she closed her eyes, reaching out to Jesse. Throwing her consciousness down their bond in the Force, she sent a burst of caution and fear. He answered with acknowledgement tinged by worry, and she drew back.

Her eyes opened and she stared at the injured droid before turning back to her room. She reached her hand out, and the lightpikes trembled, but didn’t move. Miyala’s head dropped, and she steeled herself before reaching out again. The lightpikes rolled out of their bed, but dropped the floor, and Miyala felt a tear slip over her cheeks.

She was scared.

Miyala was well and truly scared for her life. She was off balance, unarmed, and she hadn’t felt the droids coming. If she wasn’t pregnant, she might have been able to fight, but she’d been consistently losing her sparring matches with Jesse, unable to compensate for her shifting center of gravity.

Her daughter was starting to kick, and Miyala shakily whispered, “It’s going to be fine.” Her daughter’s panic didn’t soothe, and Miyala felt a rib snap as the baby kicked a little too hard. She gasped in pain, falling to one knee, but held the barrier still.

Her eyes caught the knife in the droid’s chest and she crossed her fingers before jerking her hand up. She needed this to work. 

The knife jerked upwards, severing the connections between the power core, the processors, and its joints. The droid dropped, and Miyala leapt for the counter. There was a blaster hidden on the other side. She was mad at herself for not grabbing it instead, but she was too used to blades and knives for her own sake.

She didn’t make it.

The electrostaff slammed into her hip, and she tumbled across the floor. She managed to cushion the blow with the Force, and her hand flew to her side where the already broken rib screamed. The electrostaff came down again, and she managed to catch it with her metal hand.

Her metal arm shook, and she strained to hold the electrified ends away from her, but the crackling crept closer. She pulled on the Force for strength, but it wasn’t coming.  _ I’m sorry, Jesse _ , she mentally whispered.

Blue blaster bolts shredded into the droid, hissing right over her head, and the droid toppled, dead. Jesse pulled her up and away before emptying a clip into both the metal corpses and then turned to her, his hands gripping her biceps tight. His eyes were wild and terrified and she couldn’t help but burst into tears.

There were blisters on her lekku from how close the initial rounds had passed by her head. If he’d missed, she’d be injured or dead, by him or by the droid. His question was more of a demand but he tried to soften his tone. “Prud’ika, are you alright?”

She nodded, wrapping her arms around his neck, still sniffling, and he picked her up, carrying her safely over the metal shards littering the floor. Concrete followed, meowing worriedly, and the group headed to the cockpit.

He set her down in the copilots chair, and Concrete jumped into her lap. Her cat purred, butting her head into Miyala’s chin, and Jesse said gruffly, “We’re leaving.”

She nodded, feeling like she’d fall apart again if she opened her mouth, and ran her hands through Concrete’s downy fur. She rubbed at her eyes in between strokes, trying to hide her tears. She hated being vulnerable, loathed it, and she’d just had her vulnerability thrown in her face.

The stars lengthened into streaks as Jesse piloted the Occlus into hyperspace and he moved to crouch in front of her, pulling his gauntlets off so he could brush her tears away with his bare hands. “Ala,” he started quietly, before cutting himself off. 

Her eyes closed and she leaned forward, sliding onto the floor between his legs. He wrapped his arms around her and she lost her composure entirely, crying as quietly as she could. His hands rubbed carefully over her back, and she slowly started to calm. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”

She nodded, and then jerkily rasped out, “I couldn’t sense them. And… And the Force wasn’t answering.” She rubbed at her nose, and he kissed her lekku in reassurance. She was alive. Their daughter was alive. “I’m going to have to leave now, aren’t I? I can’t even pretend I’m safe on the Occlus now.”

“We knew it was coming,” he reminded her gently. His hands clenched against her, at odds with his calm tone, and she knew how much it pained him for her to leave. “Besides,” he added, his voice cracking slightly as he fought to keep a sarcastic and unaffected tone, “I won’t have to deal with someone stealing my covers off my bed every night.”

She let out a wet giggle. “It’s  _ my _ bed, Jesse.” He huffed in amusement, and kissed the top of her head.

“We should get your rib seen to. And your hip.” He stood up, holding his hands out, and helping her up before swinging into her arms.

She snuggled into him, wrapping her arms around her neck as he made his way into the makeshift medbay, and asked, trying to cover up her own turmoil, “You going to play doctor?”

He rolled his eyes at her leer. “You wish.” He set her down on one of the two medical beds, and paused, letting his eyes trace over her features before sighing, reaching out to cup her cheek. “I was terrified,” he admitted, forcing the words out.

Miyala let go of her bravado in a heartbeat, raising her flesh hand to cover his. “I’m alright, I’m here. And you saved me.”

“Got back just in time,” he agreed shakily. “I never want to see that again, though.” He smoothed his hand over her stomach, reassuring himself their daughter was fine, and the baby kicked out, making herself known in response to her father’s touch.

“Which means I have to go,” she said softly. Her hand squeezed his before dropping from her cheek, and she looked away. Her lekku twisted on themselves, and he ran his knuckles down one, his eyes far off. “I’ll turn my resignation into Zey when we arrive at Arca.”

His gaze returned to the present and he nodded. He stepped back, swallowing, and said, “Let me look at your rib and hip and then we can… then we can enjoy what time we have left.”

Miyala nodded, tugging her shirt and pants off, baring her injuries to him. He worked quickly, his hands deft and gentle, and as the bacta seeped into her skin, healing the damage underneath, he helped her limp to their room where they spent the rest of the trip, talking, sharing, and savoring what moments they had remaining.

**Author's Note:**

> bonus points if you guess why it went wrong and who betrayed them.


End file.
